Great Water, The

Aroview: Serious-minded Macedonian drama traces the fortunes of an orphan (Kekenovski) after WW2, who despite religious repression struggles to become a leading politican in communist Yugoslavia through the Stalinist years and beyond.

Comprising the flashbacks of a dying man, this takes its 1970s source novel by Zivko Cingo into the magic realist territory of Emir Kusturica, yet imbues it with more Biblical, less flamboyant symbolic meaning. This may at times remain opaque to audiences without the necessary background knowledge, yet its burnished sepia-toned visuals and enigmatic drama has a slow-building power all its own.